1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to recording devices and in particular to a portable, electronic, continuous loop, microchip recorder with a preprogrammed acoustically triggered timer, to enable the collection and storage of audio information before and after the triggering event.
2. Description of Prior Art
Previously, law enforcement officers involved in gunfights, or other deadly force encounters, relied upon their memory and the memory of witnesses to recount events. It is well known that under the extreme stress of a critical incident, perception and recollection can be distorted. Witnesses affected by personal bias can fabricate or delete important bits of information, consciously or subconsciously, that could have a great effect on how an individual's actions are judged.
It also occurs that an officer killed at a scene is unable to give any information to investigators that would aid them in reconstructing what happened.
A small tape recorder carried by an officer is a a useful tool in these situations, but requires a prior awareness on the part of the officer that he is about to encounter a critical situation and should turn it on. This type of foresight is simply unrealistic given the element of surprise so common in such incidents.
Occasionally a critical incident has been recorded via police radio transmission, or by on scene video equipment. The recordings in such cases proved invaluable in identifying suspects, determining innocence of an officer, and as evidence in criminal proceedings.
There exists several devices which record acoustical signals in a digital format (several are disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 4,698,776 U.S. Pat. No. 4,791,741 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,056,145). All of these devices can record and play back audio signals but, they have no method of operating in a continuous loop mode or to record pre and post triggered events.
Devices previously created for pre and post event recordings were large and bulky. They were desired for Fast Frame Video Recordings to eliminate the need for magnetic tape recording formats. One such type is disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,140,436. The drawback of this device is that it was not designed for portable audio recording or to be triggered automatically from a predetermined acoustical event.
No device is known, that could be easily carried by an officer, which would continually record the ambient sound, and automatically stop and save the sounds gathered, bracketing the time frame of an unforeseen critical incident.